Bang! Bang!
The young boy watched tearfully as his father's coffin was nailed shut.
"It's not fair," he whined to his mother.
His mother squeezed his hand. "It's fair," she said; "we couldn't keep up with your father's debts, so they had to take his pancreas back."
"But GeneCo was supposed to save Daddy, not kill him!" the boy argued.
"GeneCo did save him…from his illness," his mother replied. "We just…couldn't pay them back for it, so they had to take back what they gave us so they could give it to someone else who can."
"It's not fair," the boy grumbled again. "GeneCo's supposed to provide affordable organs to people who need them. We needed one! Why did-?"
"Now, that's enough, young man," the boy's mother said sternly. "Mr. Largo does the best he can; he can't please everyone."
"You had to fight him just to get Dad's body back!" the boy shouted, turning on his mother.
"He's just trying to keep the streets clean," the boy's mother replied firmly. "He does the best he can, and I don't want to hear you say one more word about it."
"But-!"
"Not one more word," she repeated, meeting her son's tearful eyes sadly but sternly. "Never, ever question Mr. Largo, or GeneCo; the human race would have died out without them! Don't ever speak out against them, to anyone. Understand?"
"But…" The boy's protest died in his mouth as he saw that his mother was also about to cry. "…Okay, Mommy," he finally promised.
His mother's head sagged slightly in relief. "Good," she said. The boy didn't know it, but she was only trying to protect him - in reality, she wholeheartedly agreed; but standing up to Rotti Largo, as she had learned during her struggle to claim her husband's body, was a very, very risky thing to do.
At the funeral the next day, however, in spite of the promise he had made to his mother, the boy made a solemn vow on his father's grave:
I will never forgive Rotti…or GeneCo.